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Wednesday, 08.06.2014 / 4:50 AM

The Minnesota Wild is the hottest team in the Western Conference and looks to recapture the lead in the Northwest Division tonight. The Wild is two points back of the Vancouver Canucks, but has played two fewer games than its division rival.

Minnesota skates for its seventh-straight win tonight against the Phoenix Coyotes at Xcel Energy Center. Puck drop for the contest is 8 p.m. State of Hockey Time. This is the third and final meeting between the Wild and the Coyotes, as the teams split the first two games played at Jobing.com Arena this season. Phoenix took the first game, 2-1, on Feb. 4, while Minnesota earned a victory the second, 4-3, on Feb. 28.

The Wild has been rolling and has found its stride offensively. During the current win streak, the team has won each game by two or more goals, outscoring opponents 27-14 margin during the stretch. Minnesota is the only NHL team this season to win six straight by more than two goals. With a two-goal win tonight, the Wild would become the first team to win seven in a row by two or more since Boston in Dec. 2008.

Among all the team numbers, a Wild defenseman is set to hit a milestone tonight. Justin Falk will hit his 100th NHL game tonight. The 24-year-old was selected by Minnesota in the fourth round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.

On Monday, the Wild won in impressive fashion, 7-4, for the first time in Dallas since 2003. Minnesota erased three one-goal leads before pulling away in the third period on a Kyle Brodziak shorthanded goal, the club’s first shorthanded goal of the season, and eventual game winner. The scoring was distributed throughout the lineup as eight Wild players had multi-point games: Zach Parise (2-1=3); Mikko Koivu (1-1=2); Matt Cullen (1-1=2); Pierre-Marc Bouchard (1-1=2); Brodziak (1-1=2); Jared Spurgeon (0-2=2); Cal Clutterbuck (0-2=2); and Clayton Stoner (0-2=2). Stoner and Spurgeon also amassed an amazing plus-5 rating, setting a team record for defensemen in a single game. Niklas Backstrom made 22 saves for his 17th win of the season.

The Coyotes dropped its last outing, 3-2, at home against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday. Phoenix held a 2-1 lead after the first period on Martin Hanzal and Rob Klinkhammer goals, but was all it could manage through the rest of the game.

Phoenix has lost six in a row – including three shutouts. The Coyotes lost four of those by one goal, including Monday’s matchup. Phoenix has slipped to last in the Pacific Division during losing streak in which it has been outscored 16-5. Despite the skid, the Yotes are four points outside of the eighth playoff spot. But they are on a three-game road trip and are 0-4-1 over its last five away from home.

The first 5,000 fans receive a Zach Parise Player Card Magnet, the fourth in the set of four.

The Wild will wear its RED sweaters tonight.

Zach Parise has 12 points (6-6=12) in his last nine game, including his third three-point game of the season Monday in Dallas. He has a team-best 14 goals this season and ranks second with 27 points. He ranks fourth in the NHL in shots, while he ranks 10th in TOI/game amongst all forwards.

Niklas Backstrom has started both games against the Coyotes this season, going 1-1-0 with a 2.52 GAA and a .919 SV%. He is 12-9-0 with a 2.16 GAA, a .931 SV% and three shutouts in 21 career starts versus Phoenix.

I love the way that we're scoring goals. There's skill involved, but it's matching our identity that we're a hard team. We're physical, we defend hard and we're going to be hard offensively with the way we get to the net and the way we wear on teams.

- Yeo on the team scoring gritty goals

Nate Prosser and Brett Clark will be the defensemen out tonight. Forward Jake Dowell also will be a healthy scratch.

NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks and NHL Mobile name and logo, NHL GameCenter and Unlimited NHL are trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams.